Black and white apps have become an essential part of my editing process, allowing me to create striking, timeless images while preserving the quality of the original photo. As a photographer with a passion for B&W photography, I’ve always admired the depth and emotion that monochrome images can convey.
After extensive testing 50+ black and white apps, I’ve found the most effective for achieving clean, powerful results, even for those with little editing experience. They aare perfect for transforming ordinary photos into something truly impactful.
Verdict: I rely on the Fix The Photo Body Editor&Tune app to contact a team of skilled retouchers who manually handle all the edits I request. They’re especially great at converting regular photos to black and white, ensuring the result looks natural and visually appealing without relying solely on AI.
When ordering black and white photo conversion, I just provide my exact requirements to get the desired result. The app also offers a free first photo, so I can test the service before committing.
Fix The Photo Body Editor&Tune is ideal for those who prefer more detailed editing. Besides making a photo black and white, I can also request background enhancements, facial or body retouching, and more. The team always ensures my requirements are met precisely.
Verdict: I use the Lightroom Mobile app as my go-to black and white editing tool. It’s not just a powerful editor but also a great camera app with RAW format support.
In the filter section, there are two black and white options: Flat and High-Contrast. The Flat filter softens and brightens the image, making it ideal for newborn portraits. The High-Contrast filter adds shadows and reduces exposure, perfect for emphasizing mood or capturing cold, rainy weather.
To convert color photos to black and white, I start in the “Profiles” section for automatic adjustments. However, for more precise control, I use the “Color” section to tweak temperature, tone, vibrancy, and saturation, which gives the photo a more refined look.
Lightroom also offers 10 premade black and white filters, but I often add free Lightroom black and white presets for more variety. All of that makes it obvious why many photographers consider Lightroom to be the best black and white photo editor.
Verdict: Lenka is one of my favorite free photo editing apps for iOS to make photos black-and-white, and it’s easy to see why: it’s simple to use and gives me great control over my photos with minimal effort. Instead of a full editor, it offers 4 sliders for real-time adjustments: brightness, focal length (great for macro shots), temperature tones (cold and warm), and shadows.
I can switch between manual or auto-focus, use the preview screen while shooting, and toggle between full-frame and square formats by pressing and holding the screen. However, Lenka doesn’t support flash photography – only the included LED light can be used.
While it doesn’t offer as much technical control as other apps, it’s perfect for maximizing the black-and-white tonal range on my iPhone. Most photos have bright whites, deep blacks, and plenty of mid-tones when exposed correctly.
As for drawbacks, I’ve noticed that this black and white editing app doesn’t recognize iPhone X’s full-screen mode. Also, the app doesn’t appear in the “Settings” > “Privacy” menu, which is why the GPS location isn’t saved in the metadata.
Verdict: Monokrom is a simple black and white photo app for Android and iOS that I use to create unique filters, giving me complete control over the B&W tones I need. Instead of using pre-made filters, Monokrom lets me adjust brightness, contrast, tone ranges, color filters, grain, and vignettes with touchscreen gestures.
To create a filter, I simply hover the target icon over parts of the photo until I’m happy with the result. The app registers the color and uses it to turn the image B&W, making each filter unique.
The main downside is that Monokrom doesn’t allow me to save presets for quick reuse. It also doesn’t support RAW files but does save all EXIF data, including geotags.
Verdict: Snapseed is a free black and white photo editor that I use for both portrait and urban photography. While it doesn’t have a built-in camera, it allows me to edit photos with precision, applying filters, adjusting brightness and exposure, and even removing unwanted objects.
The app offers around 10 free black-and-white filters, but I can also create my own by tweaking settings and saving them as presets for future use.
What sets Snapseed apart is its ability to use various filters (red, yellow, orange, blue, green, and white), designed to mimic DSLR glass filters. These filters adjust tonal contrast in black and white images. For example, using a yellow or red filter on a tulip field will turn yellow/red elements white while darkening other tones for a high-contrast effect.
I also like to use it as a photo collage app for creative black & white collages.
Verdict: Provoke Camera lets me capture black-and-white photos with a nostalgic, vintage film style. Drawing inspiration from the B&W works of photographers like Yutaka Takanashi and Takuma Nakahira, the app’s minimalist design keeps things simple, focusing on the art of monochrome photography.
When I open this camera app for iPhone, I’m presented with six black and white film filters, each applied in real-time, giving me the freedom to experiment with different looks before I even take the shot. The filters are grainy or blurry, adding that authentic film feel. I can also choose to shoot in either JPEG or the higher-quality TIFF format.
What I appreciate most is how Provoke Camera allows me to import photos from my Camera Roll and apply the “Provoke” effects to turn them into striking black-and-white images with ease.
Verdict: Oggl, created by the same team behind Hipstamatic, offers a wide array of filters that can be customized with different lens, film, and flash settings. A unique feature of this app is the ability to adjust lens and film settings after capturing the photo. I can experiment with various combinations and pick the best result before saving the final image.
The app also lets me set individual focus points and exposure, which is great for more intricate compositions. Plus, I can save my custom settings as presets for easy access later. For those who want all filters, Oggl offers a subscription that provides access to every option, including new releases.
For black-and-white photo enthusiasts, Oggl offers filters that bring out rich tonal contrasts, perfect for creating striking monochrome images. The flexibility to tweak and refine the settings for each shot ensures a tailored approach to achieving the ideal black and white result.
Verdict: Hipstamatic offers a similar vibe to Provoke Camera, with its retro-inspired filters and a focus on creating black and white photos with a nostalgic touch. The app lets you choose from a variety of lenses, films, and flashes, each offering unique effects depending on the combination.
I enjoy experimenting with different lens, film, and flash combinations to create custom presets, which makes it easy to switch between different looks for my black and white photos. The flexibility to mix and match settings gives me more control over the final result.
One of the drawbacks of this black and white editing app is that you cannot apply effects to photos that were already in your Camera Roll before you installed Hipstamatic.
Verdict: Hypocam lets me capture monochrome images from start to finish, offering full control over the shooting process in real-time. The app is packed with tools designed specifically for black and white photo creation.
One of its standout features is the ability to adjust exposure and color tone while shooting, allowing me to fine-tune the perfect black and white tone as I go.
Among interesting add-ons, I can name a news feed done in the style of social networks. It consists of photo news presented as new black and white photos that can inspire you.
Verdict: Dramatic Black & White offers an intuitive interface with a variety of professional filters and photo editing tools. Whether I’m looking for subtle grays or bold contrasts, this app has more than enough options to suit my needs.
It includes customizable controls for contrast, texture, and light, with three main styles: classic black and white, infrared modern photography, and dramatic high-definition black-and-white images. One feature I particularly enjoy is the Ellipse tool, which lets me direct the light source to any part of the scene.
A huge drawback of this black and white filter app is the unstable work. Users complain about the constant crashes, especially when trying to load another photo.
Verdict: Blackcam is a simple and user-friendly app that offers various filters and tools for black and white photo editing. It allows me to apply different conversion filters, color filters, and even add simulated film grain and black vignetting to my images.
The app includes popular filters like Vintage, Shadow, and Classic, and offers additional presets for purchase if I want more options. Editing is straightforward with contrast, brightness, and exposure sliders, and I can also apply monochrome filters to color photos in my Camera Roll.
The biggest drawback is the very slow work. This is really the slowest black and white photo app among all that I have tested. Also, I don’t understand why the Android version is available for free and iOS users need to pay $1.99.
Our FixThePhoto team, led by Ann Young, tested different apps for creating black-and-white photos to help you find the best one. We checked how easy the apps are to use, what tools they have, how well they work, and how good the photos look after editing.
First, we looked at how simple the apps are to use. Since not everyone knows a lot about photo editing, we made sure the apps had easy-to-understand interfaces and tools. We checked how quickly someone could start editing a photo, and Ann tested how easy and fast it was to change basic things like brightness, contrast, and filters.
Then, we checked the editing tools. We wanted to see what options the apps had for making black-and-white photos look just right. This included tools for changing tones, adding special effects, and adjusting shadows or vignettes. We also tested to see if the apps let you add your photos and allow detailed edits to create the perfect black-and-white look.
Lastly, we checked the saving options available. Since some people use black-and-white photos for work, we made sure the apps could save high-quality pictures. We looked at whether the apps let you choose different resolutions and save in formats like JPEG or TIFF, which are important for printing or editing later.
